Smell the Roses
by PiNkInSaNiTy
Summary: Her favorite phrase was, If you always stop to smell the roses sooner or later you will inhale a bee. That was of course until she learned that sometimes, smelling the roses was a good idea.
1. Prolog

"Dude I cannot believe you pulled it off!" Zach jumped over the back of the tacky plaid couch in his friend's living room and quickly made himself comfortable by crossing his legs over said friends lap.

"Yes, yes I know I'm amazing." Esme often prided herself in her usually-well-thought-out pranks, and how she could get away with almost anything because of the fact that for generations her family had been the head elves of Santa's workshop. "Now please remove your feet from my lap."

Zach gave an offended huff before swinging his legs off of his friend's lap and onto the floor.

Esme's latest and greatest prank had simply been to make the entire of the workshop's south wing to look like the graveyard of 'Halloween Town' as Santa always raved about as being the most backwards place he'd ever seen. But of course none of her generation believed his tales of the backwards town of the horrifying creatures that resided there, they simply went along with it to humor their 'boss.'

"I still say they'll figure out it was you by Monday."

The pixie cut brunette shrugged. "So, I'll still have gotten off for what…three days?"

"This is true." It was silent for a moment before Zach spoke up again.

"So what are you planning next?" The question made a face splitting grin cross Esme's features.

"I'm gonna have my brother take a little 'break.'"

"You wouldn't."

"I would."

"You're horrible!"

"But you love me anyways." Oh, how Esme loved to tease her male counter part about the crush he'd developed, it was the perfect way to spend a Friday night.

"Please don't start that again."

"Fine, fine."

The night continued in a relatively peaceful manner with the occasional good-humored insult being thrown at the other party before darkness covered the town of Christmas and Zach was forced to return to his own home. It was with a friendly smile and an offhanded wave that Esme bid her closest friend goodbye for the last time, for in the morning she would put her latest prank to the test and push St. Nick to his limits.

-

Yes, I know it's short, but it's a prolog. I promise that the chapters will take up at least two pages. And trust me, Christmas Town is not the main setting of the story.

Zue


	2. Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

'Smell the Roses' will be written from Esme's point of view. All NBC characters and themes are © Tim Burton. All STR characters and themes are © to me, please ask if you would like to use them.

-

I push through the solid wall of elves in front of me hoping to escape this madness, I never meant for my brother to actually disappear. It was a prank! I never meant for any of this to happen! I see my parents out of the corner of my eyes giving me disappointed looks and I cannot blame them, what I did was wrong and I know it.

I hit a very solid object and it stops my frantic race to the exit of the workshop. I raise my eyes to meet the condescending stare of none other then Santa Claus. I can tell that I will not be forgiven this time. There will be no slap on the wrist and 24 hours of community service. I've gone too far this time. But nothing could have prepared me for my punishment…NOTHING.

-

"Esme Roman Marry Thwarn!" The judge shouts my name as if it were that of some hated creature, which by now I most likely am. "You will retrieve your brother, fix what you have done to the toy workshop, and once you have completed these tasks, you are never to set foot in Christmas Town again."

My mother lets out a heart-wrenching sob the echoes in the large courtroom. Said courtroom hasn't been used in several hundred years, which is of course until I, the bane of Christmas Town, came along. Oh, how I am such the disappointment.

I still haven't seen Zach. Is he ashamed of me? Does he not want to see me one last time before I leave? I thought we were friends, but apparently that was only true as long as I didn't get in this much trouble for one of my pranks. Everyone's just out for themselves.

I'm escorted out of the courthouse by an elf not much older than myself; he's muscled, but not ridiculously so and he has a tuft of brown hair at the top of his head. He's not wearing the standard red and green uniform that most elves wear, no, his ensemble is entirely blue with gold lining the cuffs of his sleeves and a large silver badge fastened over his left breast pocket.

I've lost sight of my parents in the large crowd that has formed. It seems that my departure is a bigger deal than I had originally thought it would be. A single tear travels the length of my cheek as I am shoved through a passage that I had never before noticed and I hear a voice call my name and a quick 'I'll miss you' before my vision blurs and I black out.

'Well, at least he came to say goodbye…"

-

"Okay, I'm officially lost." A dejected sigh escapes my lips as I bang my head off a nearby tree. These woods are unfamiliar to me and I know that I am nowhere near Christmas Town. My head is pounding and my stomach is impossibly empty, so empty that it feels as if I will hack up my nonexistent dinner. I stand there for God only knows how long before I feel a set of eyes boring into my back.

"Who are you and what do you want?" My tone is snappy and harsh, but I don't really care about my manners at the current moment. It doesn't seem at if I have thrown the person off balance in the slightest.

"I do believe I'm the one who should be asking you that question." The voice is female and sounds like whoever it is should be about my age. "You are after all in the outskirts of Halloween Town and I have not seen you before which means that you could not possibly be from around here."

"And your point being?"

There was a shuffling of feet and a bony and sewn together hand was placed on my shoulder. "I'll be needing you to follow me now deary."

I give an irritated growl, but turn and follow the gray girl. No seriously I swear she's gray. Greenish gray anyways. And she's sewn together just like all of the rag dolls I used to make back in Christmas (mine were a lot more attractive mind you). Her hair is cut short so the length is almost equivalent to that of my own hair.

"Could you not do that?" My tone is flat and I'm fighting against the fatigue that has suddenly come over me.

"What? Hum?"

"Yes."

She looked back at me for a moment and scrunched up her noise. "If it really annoys you so much."

The rest of the rather long walk continued in a peaceful silence and I noted that she seemed to wobble slightly when she walked and her ankles were impossibly thin, anorexia maybe, she did seem deathly skinny. I nearly fainted when we arrived at the 'Town' that she had been talking about and I did faint when I saw the skeletal man waiting at the gate. I now knew that jolly old Saint Nick hadn't been lying about Halloween Town. Oh, how I wish I'd listened to him.

-

AND WE HAVE LIFT OFF! And some of you didn't believe me when I said Christmas was not the main setting.

Zue


	3. New Arival

"Who is she?"

"I don't know. I haven't seen her around here before."

"Do you think she's a vampire? They do have an extensive family, she could be a distant cousin of there's."

"It's a possibility."

"But she'd still have to live in Halloween, right?"

"She could be from Sleepy Hollow."

"The human realm?"

"Yes, but that town has been known for it's paranormal activity and inhuman residence."

"Ah, yes uncle Christiaan-"

"What? Headless Horseman uncle Christiaan? Don't tell me we're going to get into a conversation about him again."

"And what is so bad about speaking well of your uncle?"

"How did we get onto this subject again?"

"We were talking about Sleepy Hollow."

"No we were talking about-Oh goodness me. She's awake!"

My rather noisy hosts take notice of my open eyes and wandering gaze. I'm in a black room with black floors, black walls, and black furniture. The only things that are not black are the bed and the room's current occupants. For a moment I ponder as to how I got here and then I remember the girl and the skeleton man which by the way are two of the four people standing beside my bed. Well it's not really my bed, but since I've never been here before and do not know whom's home I am in I cannot tell whose room I have claimed.

Before I can even open my mouth to ask as to where I am there is a whirring of gears and clanking of machinery sounding from the hallway followed by the spinning of wheels. A little bald man with oversized lips appears in the doorway and the small crowd of creatures part to let him through. I realize that his wheelchair was the machinery I had heard and I wince at the poor build. I shall have to tinker with his chair later.

"So you're awake." He snaps one of his medical gloves against his wrist. "How do you feel?"

I raise my left brow in suspicion. All I did was faint, well; then again it would worry most people if someone just suddenly fell over. "Normal."

"Then my new medicine is working as it should!" He coughs in his fist once. "Forgive my horrible manners, my name is Doctor Finklestien."

"Esme." They seem friendly enough, the doctor does at least, though the long haired rag doll standing of to the side is glaring into the back of his head.

Said rag doll speaks up then. "Oh yes, how rude of us we have yet to introduce ourselves." Her tone is sweet and reminds me of my mother. "My name is Sally, and this, " She motions with her hands to the skeleton man. "Is my husband, Jack." The younger rag doll clears her throat. "And my two lovely children Carmen and Wesley."

The boy, who I now know to be Wesley gives a slight wave as his sister grins. The grin makes her nose scrunch up and I'm willing to bet anything and everything I own -- meaning the clothes on my back and the sparse amount of money in my pocket -- that her face-splitting grin is what earned her the stitches that run from the corners of her mouth to her ears.

I force a small smile and a wave of my own as I speak. "I'm so sorry to have bothered you and I thank you for your help."

"You haven't bothered us at all sweetheart." A middle-aged woman -- who looks very much like Dr. F-- stands in the doorway.

"Ah, Jewel I was wondering where you'd gone." The doctor guides his noisy chair over to the door and stops when he reaches the woman's side.

"This is my wife Jewel. She's been taking care of you, with the assistance of my 'daughter' Sally of course."

Sally smiles a crooked smile and once again I'm reminded of my mother.

"How long have I been here?"

Jack steps forward and offers me an answer to my question. "Not long at all, ten hours at the most." I open my mouth, but Jack continues before I can say anything else. "As for where you are you are in Carmen's room." His daughter curtsies. "Welcome to Skelington Manor, you're welcome to stay for as long as you like."

-

I'm planning on adding a new chapter every other day for those of you who were wondering, though the updates may be even sooner then that.

R&R

Zue


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